This year will be different. This year I will be ahead of the game. Literally.
While the dreaded annual changing of the clock occurs next weekend, I’ll be giving up an hour of sleep everyday starting this weekend so that by next week I’ll be acclimated and in top form while the rest of the bleary-eyed world fumbles around in search of their coffee and wits.
Daylight saving—when people in this country turn their clocks ahead one hour—begins March 8.
Daylight saving was supposed to end, sunsetted if you will, in 2022 but the House of Representatives voted not to end the practice despite the Senate’s urging.
That leaves us, once again, collectively grappling with time management as we get used to getting up one hour earlier because we have gone to bed an hour earlier the night before.
The practice here in the States has its roots in energy-saving measures during World War I and has been with us in one form or another ever since. Not all states change their clocks twice a year, with Hawaii and Arizona choosing to stay on permanent standard time.
While the efforts to rid the nation of time change once and for all come and go, as a Southern Californian I’ve grown appreciative of the bi-annual tradition. After all, as a resident of the Golden State and having no real seasons, it’s useful to have a harbinger of seasonal change.
The clocks spring forward, it must be Spring. The clocks fall back, it must be Fall.
And so rather than being taken by surprise next weekend at the sudden time change, I’ll spring out of bed, get to my appointments and start work an hour sooner starting Sunday.
Those who I’m meeting will be greeted by a silently smug person who will have been 60 minutes ahead of schedule. I’ll get to my chores sooner and get to bed earlier as well.
When next Sunday rolls around I’ll be up and at ‘em as if I’ve been doing it all along. Everyone else will be playing catch up and I’ll be that much further ahead. That extra hour of daylight will be all mine until then.
Maybe I won’t wait until Sunday. Maybe Friday is the day to start that way the weekend gets here that much sooner. It’s 5 o’clock somewhere.
